It's Official.

Last Monday, I received an email from the doc (from the job that I really REALLY wanted from UCSF), saying that he could not offer me a position with the lab at this time. I had just gotten back from my morning run. I was so sad, I went downstairs and started drinking... at 9:20 in the morning. By 11 I was pretty plastered.

Fast-forward to early afternoon.

My phone went off and of course, I let it go to voice mail because I was in no condition to be talking on the phone. The person had left a voice mail. An hour later, I finally remembered to listen to the message. It was another doc from UCSF, from the other lab that I had interviewed with. I sat there. I focused. I listened very intently. The message sounded good. Doc said he wanted to have "a little chat with me." My roommate came down to see me sitting pathetically on the floor with a pen in my hand and my phone on speaker. Doc was just about to leave his phone number when said roommate came over, grabbed the pen out of my hand, and wrote down the numbers for me. That's love.

I decided to try to sober up, take a look at his lab website, and call him back by 4:30. Didn't happen. I never sobered up enough and the website was down.

I called Doc back the next day. And... he offered me the job over the phone. I was COMPLETELY flabbergasted! (You'll know why in my next post. I wrote a post a while back and I think it's time to publish it.) I didn't even bother to write a thank you email nor did I ever call to check on the status of my application. (I seriously thought I had tanked the interview.) And now I was being offered a job.

Today, I finally received an email with instructions to complete the hiring process. It's official, everyone. I will be working as a Staff Research Associate I at UCSF. As nice as that sounds, really my job is just looking after rats. I'm not 100% sure how much hands-on research I'll be getting (there is some, but I won't be working on my own projects or anything.) There is room/time to pester the post-docs about their research projects (I'm pretty good at finishing my work early so I can go bother/annoy/question the researchers and docs at my old jobs), but to do so and to really get involved in another person's project will be like working two jobs. I hope I can manage that.

I wasn't excited for the job when I walked out of the interview, but I did get excited after I had talked to Doc about the position. It's not my dream job and they didn't sell it to me as well as other jobs, but it is a job. I do need money. And now, I have my foot in the door with one of the top medical schools in the nation. I have to suck it up and I have to make it work. Things are falling into place and I cannot afford to mess things up when they go SO well.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is soon time for me to start a new chapter in my life. My college days are over and they were GREAT. Now, I am about to move back home and begin life as an "adult." I put that in quotation marks because those of you who know me, know that I will always be a kid at heart. I hope SF is ready for me because.. hahaha... this is gon' be fun...